We held Northwestern to their lowest points total of the season. Sure we shot poorly from 3 again but other than that, I can't complain much about what we did tonight.
Basketball GAME THREAD: Rutgers vs. Northwestern
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
This is a great post as I’ve been saying the same thing. We need to mix and match the lineups as those 3 together cause pain out there. young feels
Like he has to do it all and when the train wreck starts to happen.
I think young or Cliff should be the first off the bench Then you rotate in Mathis and hopefully keep him in with a good amount of starters. His game opens up much more with them out there
Tez played horrible defense today. It’s why he sat the first time he was in after not even touching the ball.
You think so? With a first round B1G tournament loss that would put us at .500... obviously .500 this season is better than .500 in a normal year but I’d feel much safer with 2 more.
And then like a true magician he put them back in and we won the game by 14.
It is this kind of magic that has us winning 5 out of 6 with people complain and criticizing the same thing every game.
I am starting to think everyone on the board has a self fulfilling prophecy. Team goes 5 out of 6 complain complain complain about same thing so we can say that one loss was because of that one thing and pike is a bad coach because he didn’t read the boards and adjust...
I agree but there is a lot of mediocre scoring within the B1G which allows Rutgers to win 60 - 67 point games.
you honestly know so little about basketball. Your bball IQ is equivalent to JY
Yep. Holding the ball and then the guards doing some ineffectual, against good teams, back and forth across screens or picks. It’s not all the fault of the guards, though. The picks need to come out quicker, or we need to feed the post quicker.
Other teams are complicating this by stuffing our bigs when they roll off picks. And by laying off our players on the perimeter some, to clog up passing lanes, forcing us to become hesitant to make entry passes and encouraging us to take 3s, where we suck at the moment.
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anon_0k9zlfz6lz9oy
Guest
How is Harper selfish. Selfish players take more shots than they ought to. Harper does the opposite. He actually needs to take more shots.
Let me ask you something, because as a former player and coach, I know a little more than the average fan. So let me ask you, presuming you watched the entire game, were you comfortable when our lead went from 14-16 points down to 3 ? Now be honest. Secondly, did that make you the least bit concerned, or did you think that once he put the starters back in they would automatically take over the game after Northwestern's run?
As for us winning 5/6, I think that's great. But still our offense struggles. And it's because of Pike's substitutions and the mis-melding of players at the wrong time. IMO, we desperately need to win at least two of our remaining games but three would be even better to end the drought that I've lived through and maybe you have too. These remaining games are too damn important to expect kids between 18-22 to just be able to turn it up and on like a switch.
Thing is Cliff needs to realize his athleticism and height can be used for power. He plays very tentative on defense. He also needs to box out more instead of just trying to jump with everyone. That may have worked in HS but won’t work in college
He made the close out steal of the game with jam punctuation.He is probably the top defensive guard in the Big.The turnovers suck ,but he is one of the few players on the team that can score the ball.If you get the ball with 5 or less seconds on the clock, then desperation 3 necessary .The other threes were ones he should take,& has been making all year. NW 50 points and totally locked down late(ask BooBue).So I for one know what game I was watching.Without Jacob we would be nowhere
No would put us at 13-11 Reg Season
13-12 if lost 1st round of Big Ten Tourney
How is Harper selfish. Selfish players take more shots than they ought to. Harper does the opposite. He actually needs to take more shots.
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His turnovers were were all attempts to drive down for a shot and dribbled off his own foot/leg.
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His turnovers were were all attempts to drive down for a shot and dribbled off his own foot/leg.
He shot 6-16 from the floor and 1-8 from 3 Point land with 1 assist. More importantly, he missed 2 threes at critical times with a lot of time on the shot clock. I happen to like him as a player but not a good game by him tonight
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Finished my 6-pack up 5.points
I'm glad I didn't need to reach for any Beam down the stretch
I'm glad I didn't need to reach for any Beam down the stretch
His turnovers were were all attempts to drive down for a shot and dribbled off his own foot/leg.
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not a selfish player in the least.
I like McConnell but I think a team with 10 McConnells will be a bit unbalanced.
The lack of non-conference games and his injury have contributed to slow development. In a normal season he would be hitting his stride as a highly ranked player by now.
No it didn’t make me concerned at all. To be honest I wasn’t concerned today down 14-4 to start the game.
Everyone has been critical of pikiell and his subs yet down the stretch over the last 5 games we have out played our opponents. At some point we need to give guys need a breather. Looks like pikiel would rather gamble at 8 minute mark vs the 4 minute mark.
Okay fair enough. I too wasn't concerned at the beginning of the game and I too understand the need to give starters a blow. The problem with giving them too much time off the court with his substitution pattern, the three he brought in Tez, Young, and Cliff don't work well together. When they come in and blend with the starters it works. The chemistry's better and especially for Young and Tez they don't have to feel as if they're the main guy that HAS to make a play.
Sorry Pancho, but I disagree with you regarding that sequence where we lost our big lead. I was worried, because I saw the way Northwestern played against us before and the other night where they blew it in double OT against Indiana. Each of these very winnable games are precious and gets the team closer to their goal and our goal of an NCAA tourney bid. Now, is not the time to allot minutes so everyone on the team gets a fair shake. I love Pike, but sometimes his substitution patterns are head scratching. I'll agree to disagree with you.
It is hard to establish a starting 5 and then say that Mathis, Cliff and Young shouldn’t play together. As the OP mentioned, it’s imperative to give starters a rest, and it has also proven to be a very successful starting line up, so how do you avoid having a period of time where they are not on the floor together. I think it’s worth letting Mag see the floor a little to see if he could do better
Mug, your question is easy to answer. Of course the starters need a blow, but not at the same time all of the time. You take one or two of them out out say Myles and Geo and put in Cliff and Young. But you DON'T take out your offense that scores and put in three guys together who have proven to be mistake prone when out there together. What I'm saying is, it's more of an art than a science. In the recent past, Pike will take out a hot shooter just because he has it in his game preparation that certain guys go out at that specific time. NO! If someone has the hot hand, you leave them in there while taking out one or two of the starters so the chemistry continues.
Here is the issue, Pike requires a different energy requirement on the defensive end then any other coach, thus the starters need a blow around the same time. That is just part of the spike culture.
I remember Tom Young telling John Battle to rest on defensive end. That doesn’t happen with Pike
I understand. But right now with every game important the rest of the way, he needs to change it up. Just use the eye test. It was absurd to allow NW to pull off a 12-0 run against us and wait as long as he did to replace those 3. Pike, you or me had no way to think that somehow we would just rev up the motor with the starters again and blow them out. In fact thank god their three great shooters missed the front end of a 1 and 1 or else the outcome could have been a lot different.
I don't know your background, but again, coaching basketball (like I did) is more of an art than just x's and o's. As a coach you have to know when things aren't working and change on a dime. Why do you think when mini runs happen a coach calls timeout? It's because he sees the game getting out of hand and he wants to change up the rhythm to his favor. It's like in baseball when a knuckleball pitcher is replaced by a flamethrower. You do it, to change the batter's eye and his timing. It's the same thing in basketball.
I don’t know yours either but I respectfully trust Pike’s coaching opinions over yours. He has a style that works and has served us us well. In past years, he used to go 10 deep with his rotation, now down to 8 and that makes the substitution pattern more difficult
They did not call travels the same on both sides.... you guys seem to focus only on shooting fouls.. fouls on the ball. That's what NW got called for.. while we routinely get the whole gamut of fouls and infractions. Watch for that vs Michigan... and remember the couple of phantom fouls for Miles vs Iowa. When there are pahntom fouls.. clearly.. that is a ref looking to make a call.. because he did not CLEARLY see a foul.. since none happened.